EL PAÍS openly offers the América Futura column for its daily and global informative contribution on sustainable development. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe Here.
Before diving into the water they already knew exactly what they were looking for. The scientific team led by the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the California Academy of Sciences set out to find countless rarely sighted species on the seabed of the Galapagos. Colorful nudibranchs, extinct fish or solitary corals have appeared wish list of the team.
While Inti Keith, principal investigator of the CDF’s marine biodiversity research program and lead author of the study published in Marine biologyhe was scanning a wall looking for nudibranchs on the sea floor, he saw them: tiny solitary white, black and purple corals appeared out of nowhere. “It was clear to me that it was them Rhizopsammia Wellingtonbecause he had studied them a thousand times in books. It was the first time I had seen them in person. “I was excited…” he recalls. Its discovery contradicted the last cataloging of the species, when in 2000 the IUCN red list of threatened species declared it extinct. For 24 years the scientific community believed they would only see them again in books.
In guided dives in January 2024, researchers found more than 100 colonies on a ledge south of Tagus Cove on Isabela Island at a depth of 12 meters. Subsequently other colonies were identified at Punta Vicente Roca, Playa Tortuga Negra and at Cape Douglas, Fernandina Island, where this coral had never been found before. In total, scientists counted more than 250 live colonies, revealing two color variants, dark purple and red-black. These coincide, according to the Darwin Foundation, with specimens collected in museums in the 1970s. On the next dive, which takes place on November 14, Keith predicts there will be many more.
“This shows that even the most vulnerable species can persist if we protect the right habitats. However, their small, scattered colonies remind us how close we came to losing them forever,” says the scientific diver and also National Geographic explorer. This discovery will now be able to deepen studies on this tiny coral and reveal its ecosystem value, about which very little is known so far.
Solitary Wellington corals – named in honor of Gerard M. Wellington, who collected the first specimens – are endemic to the Galapagos and measure from 3 to 6 millimeters in diameter, and together they form colonies of a few centimeters. Sometimes, just one. Their size means they go unnoticed by any casual eye, but not by Keith’s, who underlines the immeasurable resilience of these organisms.
These corals are known as loners due to their way of relating. They consist of many individual polyps that live together in a colony and share a skeleton. However, each polyp is independent. Another of the big differences that we all imagine with corals is that they do not form coral reefs, although they are part of them.
This type of species lives comfortably in cold waters between 15 and 26 °C. The impact of the two El Niño phenomena, in 1982 and 1997, destroyed almost 97% of the corals in the Galapagos. Even the rise in sea temperatures did not help to strengthen them. However, the La Niña phenomenon “gave respite” to this species, which adapted to the increase in temperatures, descending to greater depths, where the waters are colder. Keith found multiple specimens between 50 and 200 meters. “Thanks to the Galapagos currents, which bring cold waters rich in nutrients, corals like this resist climate change and warming water,” he acknowledges. “But they are not immune. If the temperature rises and continues over time, they will suffer too.”
Surface corals are the first victims. According to a recent report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), approximately 44% of warm-water coral species are in danger of extinction. The situation has worsened significantly since the last assessment in 2008, when a third of these species were at risk.
This is why the project, in collaboration with the Directorate of the Galapagos National Park, seeks to go beyond the simple provision of data. “We want to help decision makers. We would like to help them take measures such as promoting greater monitoring, closing areas to tourism in case the situation is critical… We have information year by year to observe the evolution well,” he explains in a video call.
Keith ensures that the reappearance of Rhizopsammia Wellington That’s not the only good news from the 2024 dives. “We are close to being able to say what other species we have glimpsed and the impact they have on our ecosystems. It is very fruitful to invest in monitoring.”
